Pharma brands often take traditional routes to reach doctors, focusing on linear TV and the office. But both strategies are becoming more difficult—which may have real-life implications for patient treatment outcomes.
When we surveyed primary care doctors earlier this year, they told us they are increasingly cutting the cord and embracing streaming TV, just like other demographics.
However, cord-cutting doctors are 2x more likely to be “no-see” doctors who restrict visits from pharmaceutical reps and 14% less aware of pharmaceutical brands than doctors who watch linear TV.¹ This is in line with consumer research Roku conducted last year, which found that cord-cutting consumers are 35% less aware of medications than pay TV subscribers.²
These trends have led to a perfect storm for pharma brands that can no longer connect with these doctors in person or on the biggest screen in the home. However new opportunities have emerged to reach doctors outside of professional contexts.
Many of us bring our work home with us, and doctors are no exception. During these “blue jeans moments,” doctors catch up on work in the comfort of their homes while streaming TV in the background.
Forty-three percent of doctors work on documentation and patient charts at home while streaming TV content, and 36% have their phones open while completing other work tasks.³
Welcome to the unofficial point of care: the living room.
Doctors multi-task all day, and that includes paying attention to the TV while working. In fact, 67% of doctors told us that after seeing an ad, they researched the product while watching TV.⁴ This creates opportunities for pharma brands to engage and educate doctors with relevant ads outside of working hours.
About 53% of doctors on the Roku platform have cut the cord, according to Roku’s Audience Insider tool. And even doctors who still have cable subscriptions are consuming less pay TV than they used to. In fact, Roku’s automatic content recognition (data) shows that doctors with cable subscriptions spend most of their time streaming (56%) rather than watching linear TV (43%).⁵
Not surprisingly, doctors leaned hard into subscription video on demand (SVOD) content like “Ted Lasso” and “Succession,” but are also regular viewers of ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) content.
The Roku Channel (TRC), streaming TV’s hottest hub for free and ad-supported content, is the AVOD of choice aming doctors. In our survey, doctors told us they watch TRC twice more than the next closest AVOD channel.⁶
Once we dug deeper into how doctors consume content on TRC, we found that they spend 62% of their time watching live programming on one of the 300-plus ad-supported FAST channels. Another 31% of their time goes to ad-supported series, and the remainder to ad-supported movies.⁷
The genres that really get doctors’ attention are news, crime dramas, romantic comedies, classic TV, and home & DIY. Compared to the average TRC streamer, they over-index for Roku Originals like “The Great British Baking Show” and “Martha’s Gardens.”
While pharma brands can continue trying to reach doctors through traditional linear TV, this research suggests that companies that underinvest in streaming TV could be missing a valuable opportunity to drive awareness among no-see doctors.
The good news: Ramping up in streaming doesn’t have to be hard. Pharma brands can adopt a targeted approach, activating HCP audiences programmatically through Roku’s third-party partners like DeepIntent, a pharma-specific demand-side platform, or Roku’s privacy-first audience match capabilities.
Pharma brands can also sponsor thematic Channel Guides on TRC. This tactic can help brands align with doctors’ interests and add value to the streaming experience.
Streaming TV hasn’t historically been the channel of choice for HCP marketers, but this research demonstrates that it can no longer be overlooked. If pharma brands aren’t connecting with doctors on streaming TV, they’re missing out.
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¹¯⁴ Roku + Lucid HCP Study, May 2023
⁵ Roku ACR data, May 2023
⁶¯⁷ Roku + Lucid HCP Study, May 2023